


Kill your heroes

by Snaji



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-08 07:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3200123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snaji/pseuds/Snaji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, to achieve happiness you just have to make the best of what you´ve got.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sanji scrunched up his nose in disapproving manner as he, with a little to no dignity, sat on pale grey vinyl flooring. Pretty much his whole apartment floor was made of it in all its cheapness. Though the color of the material was making it hard to notice tiny bits of litter and dust scattered around and could only be spotted when the light flowing through window blinds made them recognizable. Or when someone was sitting conveniently on the hallway floor and going through their mail, spam and other ridiculously colorful adverts.

He casted a glare towards one particularly dust invested corner under a long bench by the hall. The fabric paved bench was shadowed by a spacious coat rack, bolted right into a creamy white, otherwise spotless wall. However, there were no shoes under the bench.

 

   

 

Sanji sighed audibly; he was going to have long day of lying on the floor with multiple arm cramps. This was definitely not his ideal way of spending Wednesday evening. But he was a person of tidiness and he valued having everything perfectly clean, organized and in reach if needed. So the cleaning was inevitable.

He went back to the stack of paper that had come through his mail slot at some point of the morning. He flipped them in his hands a few times to check from whom each individual letter where from. There was some unimportant shit from the electrical industries and a bill of his monthly water usage. Nothing from the hospital this time either.

Slightly unhappy but not feeling any frustration, Sanji collected the different shades of brown and white envelopes and threw the stack on top of the bench. Even thought it would have been nice to finally get a notification of his request about the possibility of owning prosthetics, he knew that after three months of waiting for a simple answer of him getting in line, maybe he shouldn’t put his hopes too high. Even though the “what if” always stayed at the back of his head. It was such a tiny thought.

Either way, he was not going to give a single fuck. Absolutely none. What about the world not letting him have what he needed. He was just as qualified and able to live his own damn life just like the next person. He had been doing it the last 21 years, no problem.

Sanji made a thoughtful humming sound as he grabbed the edge of the hallway bench with both of his hands. His knuckles turned white as he slowly but with some effort pushed himself on top of the long seat.  After a few turns of his shoulders and a swipe of his pale blond bangs back to their rightful place over his right eye, he reached for his constantly present vehicle kind of object, a wheelchair.

Sanji fumbled for a while to get a hold of one of the armrests. But as his efforts weren´t showing any success, he decided it was a lot easier to grab one of the wheels and slowly turn the big metallic chair towards him. When the wheelchair was close enough for him not to bend his back while pulling the wheel, he set the hand breaks on under small handles from the back and started to hoist himself up. With pure arm strength and only a little wobbling, he leveled himself to his wheelchair which didn´t make but a few creaks as he put his weight on the seat.  Sanji release a puff of breath as he relaxed, all better now.

He took the envelope stack and put it on his lap with a little more force than necessary and reached for the breaks. Sanji had had times when he had completely forgotten about those little stoppers that would disable his moving. It was a little embarrassing since he had lived with wheelchairs his whole life. Such a little gesture should not be forgotten so easily by now. Well, there were those automatic habits that one would do on daily basis and mess it all up once in a while.  No big deal. Until it´s something like breaks that make you do a quick stop with a yanking motion when trying to move ahead. That was just unnecessary pain for the shoulder joints.

It was always a bit different with each wheelchair. The ones he had gotten accustomed to in his life where cheap but also very heavy models. Unlike the newer models that were expandable and also could be folded into little storing places. Sanji just couldn´t have that luxury as he had wanted to live on his own without a caretaker.  In his mind, having someone else do your bidding was like stepping on one’s pride, with a squash, so to say.

He arrived to his little kitchen. The space was wide enough for him to move around as there was no dining table to be seen. The kitchen was covered in warm yellowish colors that made the mornings feel numb but relaxing. The evenings would shade it with greenish hues. The space was cozy too, but not nearly as comfortable as he would have appreciated it to be. It was notable as Sanji began to reach for the crowded counter top that could, in his opinion, be a little less high. Most of his dry ingredients and kettles as well as all the utensils were put neatly into the limited area that the ceramic counters provided to contain. The cupboards were simply out of reach to the blond man´s dismay. There was no way he could store anything in them as long as he lived alone. Robin would sometimes offer to clean them while she came to visit his humble apartment. Even though they would get dusty again in a few days, thus making her efforts kind of meaningless. It on the other hand made Sanji feel bad, so most of the times he refused. Though he did regret those decisions as the floating dust was getting in his eyes as he picked up his earlier abandoned coffee mug. There was a lot of swearing that echoed on the small spaces.

As Sanji sipped at the disgustingly lukewarm coffee he had picked up, he looked down at his watch. The reddish brown leather straps were hugging his wrist as he eyed the clock. It was only six in the afternoon. Not that much time had passed after he had gotten home from work. The work place which was a weird mix of bakery and a café.

The Coffee house, or in other words Baratie as his great uncle Zeff had proudly named it, was a semi small shop where mostly students went to spend their time thanks to its location near the center of the city.  The place had gotten a reputation for employing otherwise work restricted people. Zeff had gotten the inspiration for the now twelve year old business, of course, from Sanji who didn´t mind the least. He was very much glad and even more.

He lowered his hand to his lap with a thump accompanied with another sound of fingers hitting thick paper. He glanced back at his lap where the already forgotten mail lied.  Sanji had yet to put them down on some easy to reach spot so he could grab the growing pile of recycling rubbish when he went out the next time.  The formerly neat stack of letters was now a cluttered pile on top of his jeans.

The dark grayish jeans were neatly cut just a little under the knee and was left to hang there with the effect of gravity, pulling the thick material downwards. His other leg ended a little earlier than the right leg´s kneecap which was easy to perceive thanks to its sharp and projecting outline. The left one ended just before the important knee joint would start.  The legs where an uneven match but it didn´t bother Sanji as he paid next to none attention towards his limbs. It was normal and there was no need.

Once again he straightened the letter pile but this time Sanji thought better of putting them back on his lap and instead stuffed it all to the extrusive counter. The motion clanged his limited amount of dishes together. Fortunately it didn´t push anything on the floor. He shrugged it off as rare pure luck.

As one of his hands was still occupied with the handle of the coffee mug which content was slowly getting colder, it was slightly more difficult for Sanji to move himself but he managed somehow to wheel out of the kitchen, one tire at a time. Even though he almost collided with the white door frames that decorated the doorway.

Just when he was about to place his near empty coffee mug on low coffee table that stood sturdily under a pair of windows, his phone rang with a flowing acrid kind of tune. It was Sanji´s ringtone for Robin. The words were in Spanish sung by a velvety alto voice. Sanji was a little insecure of his skills in the particular language, which was a little embarrassing as most of his bloodline was Hispanic. His excuse was that he had been born and partially raised in France before moving to America with his whole family as Sanji´s dad´s heart decease had started to act more violently. He could make out most of the words without difficulties except for some inflected forms wrapped into an unctuous dialect. The song was apparently about murder, which made sense as Robin had suggested it for him. It was a pretty song though. The phone vibrated a few times before Sanji managed to fish it out of his vest´s pocket. He took a glance at the bright screen that showed his friend´s name with a clear black font and he instantly pressed the green answer button and a low pleasant voice reached his ear.

“Good evening.”

Sanji smiled and leaned further into his backrest.

“Wonderful evening to you too Robin. I haven´t heard from you since last weekend; how are you two doing?”

“Ah, it really has been a while. I´ve been very busy lately”, Robin replied with a little sigh that was barely audible through the phone.

Sanji knit his curvy eyebrows together while listening to the black haired goddess. Robin was a person with an iron grip towards emotional control. It was really hard to notice any change in her elegant behavior, even though Sanji had known her for many years now and Robin was pretty much his very best friend. Something like this did give him worried feelings.

“Because of work?” Sanji asked subtly and as he got short comply he continued with the already stationary worry clear in his tone.

“Dear, please take a good care of yourself”, he said and carried on shortly as he did know Robins situation and didn´t want to sound rude.

“I know your work means a lot for you, and your dedication is truly the most admirable one, but please…”

Sanji could almost see the faint smile that would create little furrows on her dark skin, visible on the corners of her mouth as she replied.

“Thank you and I do appreciate your concern. But I´m also confident that I know where the line of what is considered still healthy goes. Have a little faith in me, alright?”

Sanji opened and closed his mouth for a little while in hesitation on whether he should or shouldn´t say anything that would come as doubting towards his friend. With a heavy clack of his teeth locking together he decided to stay silent, for now.

“Okay… Just remember to take a rest whenever you can.”

“And that is exactly what you like to remind me about from time to time. Don´t worry too much Sanji, you know I´m a very strong willed woman, even if I say so myself.”

Sanji smiled even wider that before at her reassuring response.

“I know”, He said half laughing but with absolute honesty. Sanji decided to get the topic on lighter grounds.

“Hey, remember that time we needed to move me to upstairs in your house because Franky had accidentally ruined the couch where I usually sleep in? And you just didn´t pay any heed and lifted me up with only one arm like it was nothing. Carried me all the way,” Sanji said and grinned as he heard some sniggering from the other end of the line.

The event was a little embarrassing as he vaguely remembered letting out a high pitched squeak that made his voice crack while getting hoisted up with no warning what so ever. Franky had laughed and whistled from the bottom of the stairs as he watched his wife climb step at a time with minimum effort, a baker dangling on her shoulder.

“I´m pretty sure that your definition of ‘strong’ also goes in a literal sense”, Sanji finished.

“Then, maybe we should consider calling me a Viking warrior”, Robin joked back.

“More like Viking warrior goddess, my lovely.”

“Perfect,” Robin hummed in and agreement and Sanji replied back with a humorous ‘why thank you’.

“So, any other news?” Sanji asked politely. He was a little puzzled on why she called him. Usually Robin liked to make more beneficial calls than just for fun calls so to speak. Usually to inform Sanji that she´d be visiting him or vice versa. For them the talking was more face to face with a few rounds of coffee and most of the times some pastries Sanji dragged along.

“Sanji… has there been any news from the hospital?” Robin asked quietly and as she got a long negative sigh form her friend, her apologetic tone was present in her next sentence. And thus she went to the point of the call.

“I see, Franky has been working on that special gift. Would you perhaps have time to come over today?”

“Wait, you mean the wheelchair he is building from scrap metal?” Sanji said, his eyes widening almost comically.

“The one Franky mentioned he would make for no reason?”

“If the ‘for no reason’ means a well-deserved gift for a friend then yes. Sanji, a lighter chair that is actually build for you is always a better option.”

“Well I´ll be damned”, Sanji said with a heavy breath of amaze as he listened to Robin´s amused voice.

Franky was truly amazing with subjects that could be associated with mechanics. The blue haired man worked as a successful shipwright working in a company named Water 7 beside his brother, Iceburg.  It was a well needed business as they did live in Portland. The Water 7 was built on the Northern side of Willamette River as a huge, architecturally showy white building with high dome-like ceiling.  High enough to build a cargo ship as Franky had boasted excitedly. In Franky´s free time his interest in building didn´t differ much. It only shifted form huge ships dedicated for seafaring to tinier but none the less complex constructions. Mostly because Robin had banned Franky from making anything bigger than a normal refrigerator. The shipwright had been a little morose about it but he had let the subject slide in a few hours with a simple kiss to the forehead by his dark, gorgeous wife.

The matter with Sanji´s wheelchair was, as Franky had stated with an upturned nose, that it was heavy for a lightweight like Sanji. A light model would, so to say, be more efficient and make his moving easier. A lot easier as turning the wheels did require some arm power. So Sanji guessed the shipwright had had enough with the wheelchair´s tires slowly turning and creaking over their dark parquet floor. There was also the matter of the genetic decease he carried from his dad’s side that everyone he knew seemed to be worried about. They didn´t really mention it much though, good for him.

“Yeah, I haven´t planned anything, I have the whole evening free”, Sanji said then with enthusiasm, answering Robin´s previous question.

“Excellent. Also, Sanji…” Robin said with a little pause to emphasize her next words more.

“Would you mind taking a cab this time?” Robin asked as casually as she could.

“I know you are strong headed with these matters.  Which is sensible of course…”

Sanji felt a little helpless. After all, this was one of the countless similar, yet very carefully asked questions he wanted to avoid. He downed the last of his cold coffee and reached to put the ceramic beige colored mug on top of the low table. The bottom of the cup pressed softly against pristine white tablecloth. He was always unconsciously worried about potential coffee rings ruining the perfect fabric.

“Robin… Dear please.”

“There isn´t really no way out of this conversation and you know it very well. Giving and receiving help is a normal human interaction. It´s not equivalent to ruining your pride of living on your own”, Robin stated like she was teaching middle school children.

“If you want some proof I can say right here that I absolutely respect you and your decisions. I´m proud of you. But you need to remember that it´s not wise to drain all your energy on just getting to public transports, especially with your other condition. After all you still have to drag yourself out of a burning bus if there occurs some unfortunate traffic accidents.”

Sanji let out short but soft laugh at Robin´s trademark of suggesting the most ominous plausible situation that could happen. It was so very Robin-like. Her grim utterances still made him a little nervous. At least these days Sanji had enough courage to ride on the front seat while Robin drove.  She wasn´t a reckless driver, not at all. The downright death goddess just had the most painfully colorful imagination ever which made even the hardest iron minds go pale.

Sanji himself had a pretty good imagination. As a kid he had dreamed of adventures over the blue vast seas with neon colors and golden scaled fishes the size of submarines. The no more than 6 year old blonde had epic adventures in a metallic bathtub filled with foam that sailed over the tiny fantasy world´s edge and sloshed with a splat into the tiny mosaic tiles that as a whole crafted a variably shaded blue bathroom floor. Then the mixed soap water would slowly trickle down to the sewer system.

In other words, he was pretty much the perfect victim for the `what if` type of real life horror stories one could make. But her speech on the phone did swell up his heart with affection.

“Yeah, yeah. I´ll be careful, thanks Robin”, Sanji replied while still stubbornly avoiding the real subject.

There was a pause. Like she was trying to figure Sanji out of this years old problem. Put him on a scale and see what he was thinking, figuratively of course. As to roughly reference one of Trafalgar Law´s drunken quotes: Intelligent person meant for an intelligent mind. And as the mind is the massive container of complexity itself. That meaning everything between an emotional being´s ears was a labyrinth, yet to be fully questioned. Law was definitely the solemn type of drunk. Not much difference there from the normal actually. A little more poetic though.

“Fine”, the dark haired woman huffed even though she was clearly not pleased with the outcome of this conversation.

“I`m sorry…” Sanji apologized while a little distressed by the situation.

“Don´t worry. You are getting off the hook, for now”, Robin said with a devilish hint hidden in her words.

“Ah, I see”, Sanji said submissively. There was no escape. Robin was certainly going to talk to, or more like remind Sanji that he needed to take care of himself as well. Honestly, they were both hypocrites.

“And Sanji?”

“Hmm”, Sanji gave a puzzled hum to show he was listening.

“Remember to put your phone somewhere close in case of some truly traumatizing happens”.

“Dear please, I don´t want to get traumatized by a transportation vehicle”, Sanji said and then patted his dark brown vest´s side.

“But sure, I got pockets. I´ll call if I get tired alright?”

“I hold you on to that then”, Robin approved with a small laugh.

Shortly after they said some quick but pleasant ‘see you soon’ biddings, they had ended the call.

Just like Sanji had promised, he placed his phone into one of the pockets of his pinstriped vest. The flat communication device pressed uncomfortable at his lower ribs but he paid no mind to it. He then proceeded on rolling himself back to the kitchen area.

Sanji stopped at the kitchen entrance to ponder for a while. It was pretty much a tradition for him to bring some sweets and pastries or something similar for visits. This one wouldn´t be any different. He had always enjoyed giving some form of food for others. Even though as a baker he wasn´t an official cook and as cakes and buns and so on did not, in fact make anyone full. It was still a good feeling to be able to make someone happy with your very own skills.

He moved closer to a tall but narrow cupboard in one of the corners. The cupboard was almost as tall as the room had height and Sanji would have thought it was actually bolted in place from the ceiling if it wasn´t for a tiny shadow between the tiny space, contrasting shades against a nearby wall.

The insides of the cupboard were oddly placed. Once again the top shelves were empty but the three lower shelves were stocked with different shaped, air tight containers. Some made of tin and some made of clear glass or other variations. Pretty much any kind of box you can put cookies in for storage. He really did bake too much and too many. He had to hope Luffy would come for a visit before any of these went bad.

He took one of the round tin cases and popped it open for examination. It was full of round cookies made of creamy white dough with small pieces of chocolate poking out from the surface, Chocolate chip cookies. With a nod of approval he closed the lid and placed the recycled tin case on his lap. The most useful storage place actually, if you asked him. Sanji then wheeled across the room over to the fridge that was located between two crowded work counters.  He opened the white door fully covered in decorative magnets that his friends had so helpfully brought over.  Truthfully they did give the kitchen some more color. Sanji´s absolute favorite magnet was shaped like a fried egg that Luffy had given him one time. He carefully took out a plate with a low canopy on top of it for protection and placed it on his convenient lap to accompany the tin case.

With a little push Sanji closed the magnet covered door and carefully raised the canopy. Inside there was a half-eaten, crusty French cake with raspberry interiors. It was a galette he had picked up from Baratie after the working hours had ended. He knew he wouldn´t put it on display the next day so instead of allowing it to go to waste he took it with him, just like any other snack of the day he could fit in his backpack. At least free pastries made Luffy happy. He could always give leftovers to that bottomless black hole of a friend Sanji had. But this French cake was going with him to the Nico residence. No doubt at least half of it would be devoured by Franky´s large form.

Sanji fumbled around the counter while cursing passionately as light items dropped on the floor. He really had to rearrange when he got back to his apartment. Come to think of it, he wouldn´t be cleaning this place today. Sanji didn´t really know if that was a relief or distracting. After securing the containers with tape he finally moved closer to the front door of his small home. Right before the narrow hallway started there was a little corner with an almost empty grey backpack resting against a low, frameless mirror. Picking up the backpack he took a long glance at his appearance.

In the mirror there could be seen a young thin man with a bony figure, sitting in a metallic wheelchair with a slightly slouched posture. His pale blond wavy hair had been desperately combed to hide his right eye and to reclaim some control over the crow´s nest that was his locks. His dull, salt water blue eye stared back as it was framed by deep circle imprinted on reddish skin of his eyelids that made them look sore. On his chin rested a goatee few shades darker than his hair and over his lips was a sparse mustache. The most remarkable feature on his softly curving face, was a thin spiral of an eyebrow that curled near the root of his arched sharp nose. Clothing wise, under Sanji´s vest vas a mint colored button up shirt which sleeves he had rolled up to his elbows. You could see his sharp collarbones poking out just a little from the neckline.

Sanji would have liked to say he was very attractive but that was a white lie, at least for himself. Sanji sighed and fixed his bangs a little before he pulled a blue duvet with Scottish pattern out of his backpack.  He spread the duvet over his legs and it folded neatly over the stump points. Then he carefully laid the containers in the gray bag, shut it, and left it rest on his blanket covered legs. Finally he was ready to leave. There was a soft click when he pushed the front door shut after a fight of fitting through the narrow hallway. Sanji thanked every lady luck there was that at least he lived on the ground floor.

****

A slightly windy weather was waiting for Sanji as he opened the glass door separating the temperature levels between indoors and outdoors. It wasn´t too cold as it was only the start of fall but as he did live close to the Willamette river in Portland, the semi-chilly air wasn´t a surprise, really. The blanket covering his lap was just the right source of heat and he would barely feel any shivers through his button up shirt and the additional vest gently hugging his thin waist and ribcage.

The wheelchair´s tires rolled slowly against asphalt while Sanji turned them onward. Under his sharp puffs of breath he appreciated his apartment´s placement which happened to be only few meters from the nearest bus stop.  He moved over a crosswalk, carefully raising his small front tires so he could get back on the sidewalks that were unfortunately always a little raised from the roads. He stopped right under a blue bus stop sign. The baker fixed his wind swept hair back in place and checked out his wrist watch once again. Sanji pursed his chapped lips as he eyed the black elegant hands of the clock. Apparently he should´ve had looked at the clock before going to the bus stop.  Fortunately the bus he had to catch went by every fifteen minutes. Technically, Sanji could take almost any bus if necessary as such was the luxury of living close to the center. But as he was going to Robin´s house, not just any bus was suitable. Otherwise he would have to make switches on the way and that wasn´t very appreciated as even getting into a bus was painstakingly hard.

Robin´s house was located a little further from the center. Around the detached house areas mostly occupied by silence loving people and bigger families. For Franky and Robin it was the quietness, and of course the more spacey house Franky´s machinery needed. All in all it was a very lovely looking neighborhood.

Sanji hummed a little as he glanced around as much as his chair allowed him to without the effort of turning the whole thing.  The area he lived in was semi busy with double road full of cars that sped by in a hurry.  There were lots of stylized little corner shops for everyday needs. It was a charming area with older architecture and old fashioned streetlamps. In this low horizontal plane perspective Sanji could see only bits of the river.  A line of benches and already quite weather torn flowers decorated the border of where sculpted flagstones met the huge mass of moving water.

Sanji fiddled with the helm of the blue blanket and occasionally shifted the backpack over his legs for a better position as he waited. He still had about 5 minutes to go. It wasn´t a terribly long time, but Sanji wasn´t really a waiting person.

Sanji hoped he´d have his usual silent company with him for half of the ride. Basil Hawkins, a tall and lanky long haired blonde who stared at bystanders more than people were comfortable with.  Sanji had met the man half a year ago in a similar bus as Sanji was now waiting for, one that happened to go by the central hospital. It still felt like a blessing to have to use only one bus line, really.  At the time of their first meeting Basil had sat at the mid-way of the bus with a brooding look as he had watched Sanji´s scampering. The thinner blonde had tried to get over the tall threshold that was the bus floor.  Sanji had had difficulties with hauling himself up and as the bus driver had gotten a little impatient, Basil had gotten up and tried to help the cursing smaller man. Sanji had, as his charming ass self, denied the help but when they both kept insisting the other to quit it by Basil flailing his hands in small moves and Sanji confusedly yelling at the other. Basil had grown tired of it all and picked Sanji up like a sack of flour. In the end they had ended up tangled on the dirty bus floor for small children’s amusement and their own humiliation because Sanji had struggled Basil off balance.

There had been more confused yelling until Basil had given Sanji few ASL signs and the young baker had abruptly shut up. Sanji hadn´t been very fluent in sign language. And he still wasn´t all the way comfortable using it either, but at that time his skills had been very, very rusty. He was just happy that as Luffy´s friend, he had had the means and usages for learning such an intriguing language.  After a few awkward swipes of his scrawny fingers as an attempt at responding, Sanji had huffed rather irritated and watched with arms folded as Basil had raised the wheelchair up to the bus floor, where Sanji still sat rather childishly. For Sanji´s comfort, Basil hadn´t raised him back to his chair but had let Sanji climb back up on the seat himself. They ended up sitting in silence for a while with Sanji pouting and Basil with a little ticked of frown and hesitant shifting in his seat. And as the ride had gone onward Sanji had grown bored of the same betony landscape and asked the lanky man´s name who had raised their non-existing eyebrows. Honestly, the only way Sanji had known Basil had a questioning look on his face was because the facial muscles had shifted the weird triangle shaped tattoos inked on Basil´s forehead.  For the rest of the trip the two of them had a slightly clumsy conversation as Sanji didn´t know some words or made a wrong sign for Basil´s amusement. A weird kind of friendship had started from there. Now, on the days when the two of them run into each other on mornings, Sanji would reluctantly allow Basil to help him up the threshold and they would talk in silence. It was a tradition by now.

 

 

Basil worked at the central hospital as an entertainer for kids and older folks. Mainly with card tricks and tarot card readings. As Basil was mute he had learned to carry along one of those old Magna doodle drawing boards. Sanji had no idea where the older man had gotten the 70´s drawing board but Sanji guessed it was handy and more fun for youngsters to look at as Basil wrote on it when communicating. Infinite “paper” was always a bonus too. The somber looking man had mentioned few times that the muteness ran infrequently in his family line. Simply genetics. They seemed to have something in common there.

Sanji raised his head from his thoughts and looked at an approaching bus. He recognized the sounds of a heavier than normal car´s grating tires easily enough.  He glanced at the bold white numbers imprinted on the front of the bus. Yep, this was the right one. He moved his chair a little closer to the edge of the sidewalk as a sign for the bus driver to stop and pick him up. After all there was no one else on his bus stop right now. As the bus game to halt, with a nod Sanji rolled himself close to the half glass middle doors as they slowly opened and he glanced inside looking for a certain friend.

With a disappointed grunt of not finding his tall friend, he carefully placed his backpack on board and started the same he had done in his apartment. The same that he did several times a day. He lifted himself up from his slightly moving chair and then lowered himself to sit on the edge of all too familiar nuisance that was the threshold.

“Um… Excuse me sir? You need some help?”

Sanji, who had already taken a grip on the tires of the heavy wheelchair, turned his head around with a frown. He spotted a nervous looking boy with a bandana tied around his pink dyed hair. A student, judging from the young age and the files full of messily scribbled words he was carrying.

“No”, Sanji gave a short monotone reply as he went back to his earlier task of pulling his shitty metal seat up, not really caring for the pink haired boy´s discomfort.

“Uh but that looks really difficult” The boy said with small resist but flinched a little when a harsh voice came from the front of the bus.

“Just give it up kid, that skinny mosquito repellent doesn´t let many people touch him”, said a delinquent looking man with two nasty scars travelling across his face.

“Mosquito repellent?” Sanji repeated with even deeper frown.

The scarred man who happened to sit on the driver seat smirked and did a motion indicating a spiral.

Sanji´s mouth opened and he glared at the man with a clearly offended look. Oh he definitely knew what unique feature of his the bus driver was implying here.

“Really now? That´s not even a creative insult Bellamy. My eyebrows look nothing like the green death for insects!”

“Are you accusing me of insulting here?” The bus driver, Bellamy challenged with a snort.

“I´m just stating the hard facts.”

Sanji only gave an angry snarl like noise and proceeded to finally pull the wheelchair over to the bus floor. With a lot of effort of course, and cursing. Most of the onboarding people didn´t really pay much attention to Sanji as he collected the blanket from where it had fell on the metallic bus floor and threw it on the now empty chair.  Portland had a lot of immigrants from different places such as Europe for example. In other words, a slightly upset person with a French accent and Scottish patterned blanket wasn´t an unusual sight for locals.

Sanji didn´t try to get himself back up to his wheelchair as it would have been a waste of time and energy. He still had to get out of the bus too. Instead he hauled himself on the nearest low bench that was bolted to the side of the public transport.

“Everything on board or do I have to close the doors on your face?” Bellamy asked with an upraised eyebrow as he leaned outward from his seat so he could look at Sanji.

“Yeah, yeah. Just drive you asshole”, was Sanji´s just as rude reply back as he made a waving gesture of ‘go on’ for Bellamy.  Sanji was greeted with some muttering and the sound of doors closing.

As the bus got back on the road, Sanji leaned his back against the wall that supported the simple bus seat he had dragged the little weight his body made up. He glanced out of the dirty glass doors as the scenery outside changed vividly with motion. Nothing new there, the bus made the same route it always did and as it was expected to.  There was some rustling of papers on Sanji´s other side and he slightly turned to look at the source of the noise. It was the awkward pink haired kid who was adjusting the pile of folders wrapped under the boy´s arms. The boy had noticed Sanji´s sudden attention to him and nervously let his own gaze travel back to the load of papers, his eyes being framed by thick round rimmed glasses. Great, now Sanji felt bad for ignoring the boy earlier.

“Hey”, Sanji called and as he got a puzzled look from the kind of stiff looking boy, he gave a small but genuine smile.

“Thanks for the earlier offer though. Some people will definitely appreciate it”, he continued and watched as the boy´s face lightened up a little. The boy then gave an acknowledging nod that looked like a half bow more than anything.

“Apparently some people that aren’t you”, Bellamy called out from the front as the so very helpful person he was.

“Shut up.”

“Make me.” The bus driver with sandy blonde hair aggravated as he turned on a crossroad, fortunately his eyes still glued on the road.

Sanji let out a hum that was probably the synonym for “I don´t give a fuck anymore” and rolled his eyes.

“The bus driver would be very appreciative if he got some mannerism”, Sanji turned back to the boy and pointed at the back of Bellamy´s head that was hardly visible thanks to the small wall separating the driver´s seat from others.

“Ah, I´m pretty sure he would say the same to you”, the boy said hesitantly and added a ‘sir’ into the end of the sentence afterwards as he thought he had gone too far.

“And the kid speaks the truth. Ten points and a parrot badge to boot”, Bellamy sniggered while Sanji just stared like he had been betrayed with some severe back stabbing.

“You win this round then. But you are still a very ‘stick far up your ass’ jerk” Sanji sighed, with a feeling of defeat and an admitting smirk on his face.  Bellamy wasn´t really that bad. More of a minor asshole with a possible history of an ex-school bully who dropped out before graduating and went with what he had. Sanji should actually thank the man for expanding his already colorful vocabulary of insults with creative new ones. Also, Bellamy had never even ones mentioned anything about Sanji´s legs which was a nice bonus for tolerance levels.

“Takes one to know one”, came from the front with a humorous tone. And the conversation died peacefully with Sanji flipping the bird.

****

When Sanji´s stop came to view he could see a dark, tall figure hovering over several other people watching as the bus came closer. He had his suspicions on who the figure was and as the vehicle came to halt, he could see that he had been proven right. His best friend was indeed waiting for him, clad in a deep blue coat which helms where embroidered with golden flower pattern. Under the coat she wore a black, high collared button up shirt with small white polka dots. A high waisted dark pencil skirt was held up with a decorative belt and her sturdy yet long legs ending in black high heels that hugged her ankles, giving them some support. Robin looked absolutely lovely, just like always.

Sanji waved at her as the doors opened and after getting a wave back he waited for other passengers to get out first.  After Sanji had made sure he had enough room to get out himself, he carefully lowered himself to sit on the threshold, again. It was a practiced tactic. Sometimes it took longer, but it had never failed him. Robin had already taken Sanji´s backpack to rest on her left shoulder while she took a grip of the plastic armrests on the wheelchair and with a single pull she easily got the chair back on the steady ground. She didn´t bother picking Sanji up and just turned the chair so it was as close to Sanji as the bus´s side allowed. And then she waited patiently with the blue blanket in one hand as Sanji finally got himself on the wheelchair and into a comfortable position.

“You didn´t have to bother waiting here for me you know.”

“You end up doing a lot of pleasant surprises for dear friends”, Robin replied to Sanji´s weak resistance and gave the scrawny baker his blanket back.

“Besides it´s good to get some fresh air into my lungs before I suffocate with dust clogs and high blood pressure”, added with a smile and laughter reflected in her piercing, grayish blue eyes.

“Sounds logical I guess”, Sanji hummed.

He said nothing as Robin took the handles and started to gently push the wheelchair, making Sanji stop operating the chair himself. Giving in he just let his hands lay on top of the blanket, nibbling thick wrinkles on the fabric.

“Nothing eventful happened on the way?”

“At least no one died, thank god for that”, Sanji said with a laugh and turned his head so he would see Robin from the corner of his eye. Most of his sight only caught passing scenery and Robin´s right arms, covered in wide blue sleeve.

“Sounds fortunate.”

“Uh huh”, Sanji agreed and kept on talking.

“Just Bellamy being his usual shitty self. I did meet a nice person though”, Sanji recalled. He had talked with the pink haired boy after his banter with the scowling bus driver. The boy had introduced himself as Coby and confirmed that he was indeed a high school student. He was about to graduate this year too. Coby had been a little hesitant to continue a conversation first which was understandable when only few minutes ago the person he was standing next to had threatened the bus driver.

“No Basil this time to keep you company?” Robin asked and leaned slightly forward while pushing the wheelchair on the ‘who knows when was the last reparation even’- sidewalk, as the cracked asphalt kept on giving tiny shakes to the tires.

“Come to think of it, I haven´t seen him lately, such a shame”, She mused out loud.

“I haven´t seen him today. His working hours are irregular though. And I´m sorry dear, but I´d hope not to see you two in the same space, if possible”, Sanji said in an apologetic manner.

“Well he is just the right amount of cynical for entertaining discussions.”

“Highly entertaining for you, but me?” Sanji shook his head.

“I almost choked on my coffee the day I introduced him to you”, Sanji said, feeling a little bad he was addressing Robin this way.

“And you don´t on the days Law happens to come along?” Robin asked with marvelling smile and chuckled as she heard Sanji´s strained sigh of torment.

“Can you imagine all three of you in the same room?” Sanji said, horrified by the very idea.

“Ah, the sass level”, Robin nodded, even though Sanji couldn´t see it.

“Way too high to handle. Also knowing me, I´d be sitting in the middle”, Sanji finished. Oh yes he was never going to handle that.

“Sometimes you just have to take some blows for the common good, Sanji” Robin said and carefully turned Sanji´s wheelchair to the left where concrete met narrow stone path, leading all the way to a wooden porch.

“Hmm, true. I hope you know I´m willing to do pretty much anything for your sake.”

“Likewise”, was Robin´s authentic reply, as she pushed the metal chair over flat stones dipped into gravel.

The front yard was small and was surrounded by augmented flowers and floral bushes that varied in size. Sanji had really never asked what kind of flowers Robin preferred to grow. Besides black tulips that she kept in a neat flowerbed next to the porch´s stairs, he really didn´t know what she had in her little garden. Sanji did guess one of the flower species had to be Casablanca as she had mentioned her being fond of that type of Lilium.

As they came face to face with the start of the little stairs that led to Robin´s house, Sanji frowned and turned to Robin with a questioning frown.

“We aren’t going through the back door?” Sanji asked her and she shook her head.

“There is a… temporary barricade blocking the way. “

“…Oh”, Sanji nodded and was about to use his arm strength once more but Robin stopped him with reasoning words.

“Sanji, it´s probably wiser to carry you. I´m pretty sure you don´t want to crawl your way through the house” she said with a raised eyebrow. Her hands were already on a position, ready to pick Sanji´s gaunt body up and in from the front door.

Sanji looked a little hesitant while he kept on glancing at the front door and back at Robin who was waiting for the permission.

“Uh… I crawl around my own apartment?”

“Where there are no sharp objects laying on the floor because you are not married to a shipwright and engineer enthusiast”, Robin answered, effectively shutting down Sanji´s argument.

“I guess I don´t want to crawl then”, Sanji murmured and made a face that would probably be best described as a pout.

Robin gave an approving nod and lifted the sulking baker up easily, one arm firmly placed on the small of his back and the other gently gripping Sanji´s arm. She set him slowly to lean over her shoulder so her other hand would still be free to open the reddish brown, symmetrically carved door.

“How can you be so sure I haven´t married some nice shipwright and engineer enthusiast in the past three days we haven´t seen?” Sanji asked her, trying to sound serious with his question.

“Because I am completely content that I´ll be the first person you will inform about your love life when it comes to exist”, Robin said with just as serious tone, but with a small smirk painted on her red lips.

“Also I do believe that the person who will catch your interest will be of a more absurd scale”, she continued after climbing the small amount of stairs and walked over to the front door.

“Perhaps a knitting enthusiast?” She suggested lightly while she adjusted her hold on Sanji and reached for the door´s brass handle, opening it wide so it would make their entrance to the hallway easier. She also had to hunch a little as she went inside. As the tall beautiful lady she was and with high heels there to add extra height, Sanji´s head and back were in a pretty high risk of getting mauled by ceiling lamps or low upper door frames.

“Oh? A good one” Sanji sniggered.

The house was spacey, painted and decorated to match in warm tones. There were a considerably big amount of wall decorations. From different cultures and replicas of art, either sculpted or created the two dimension way on a canvas. Without a doubt, everything hanging from the walls and ceiling belonged to Robin. It was rather difficult to imagine Franky owning a set of traditional African masks. An old one too as the colorfully painted face on the dark surface was splintering, the paint completely falling off in some spots. The floors and even some of the drawers´ surfaces had parts and tools in an unkempt mess that a mechanic would have, just like Robin had said.

“What would be the most pleasant of places you want to sit?” Robin asked. She had stopped next to the shoe track and tried her best to take her shoes of with the help of her other feet. She couldn´t exactly bent down to take them of as there was backpack resting on her other shoulder and an adult hanging from the other, the latter struggling not to slip on the floor while Robin´s balance was rickety.

“Uh, the kitchen?” The blond cook asked, trying not to give out too much pressure on Robin´s right shoulder blade by leaning on it too hard with his elbows.

“Figures.”

They spend small moment in comfortable silence with only the sound of heels being pushed off as delicately as in this kind of situation one can. After the struggle she finally got back to her full height and with that, headed to where the kitchen stood, surrounded by a natural light that could be seen already from the hallway.  As they came to the kitchen´s entry, Sanji could hear tinkling and creaking of small metal pieces.

The kitchen was a cozy area with partially tiled walls and yellowish mosaic patterns. The cupboards and other surfaces where dark reddish brown color to give some contrast to the dominating yellow, green and white seen in the room.  Over the other side of the kitchen was a smaller, more delicate looking door than the front door. It was the house´s back door.  And leaning against this door was a big, barrel chested man, his eye glued to a strange rack looking combination of metallic parts as he turned it in his hands.

The man, Franky looked a little ruffled while wearing what looked to be dirty long sleeved shirt and in his legs only a pair of boxers. Nothing new there though, the shipwright was usually seen without pants in his own house. After a few years it was something Sanji had gotten accustomed to. The shipwright would be best to describe as a person who woke up at ungodly hours to make chocolate covered toast and who would also stay up around ungodly hours if his wife allowed that. Sadly Franky´s job didn´t have irregular working hours which meant his creative self had to shut down early. Franky´s hair looked like it needed dyeing as grayish brown roots were visible for miles. However, the rest of his long hair was colored in a vibrant light blue. Franky usually kept it in a braid or two, mostly for safety reasons as he did work with heavy machinery on daily basis. Sanji had one time asked the bigger man about it. Apparently there were horror stories going around the Water 7 workshop. Some people had lost whole arms by being caught by the sleeves or something just as horrifyingly similar. In that subject, long hair wasn´t any different from loose clothing and was just as dangerous. Right now the blue locks were tied into a messy ponytail with what appeared to be a plastic fastener, probably something he had just grasped somewhere, not really bothering to search for proper hair ties. His bulky forearms were inked with blue star tattoos of varying sizes, the bigger ones having distinct details. The tattoos would have been identical if it wasn´t for his right hand where the biggest star was hallway hidden under plastic and screws. Half of his forearm was covered with support cast that led to five prosthetic fingers. The whole hand was self-made from recycled scrap metal and old toys, hence why the otherwise blue plastic was star patterned. It had been a happy accident and the shipwright had decided to leave it that way, saying it looked totally fabulous and unique.

“… Is this the barricade you were talking about?” Sanji asked and eyed the blue haired man.

“Pretty much yes” Came from the tall dark skinned woman. She was still holding Sanji on her shoulder and he had to twist his back so he could even see the shipwright who had just raised his head to look at the newcomers.

“Yo, Sanji! How is it going?” Franky asked joyously while raising his left hand up from holding the metallic structure in his lap. It was easier to see his other hand which had the smallest finger missing. Factories really weren´t safe, especially when you are careless. Some people just learned it the hard way, Sanji noted.

“Seems like you got carried away there eh?” Franky said after looking at Sanji who had dropped all resistance a long time ago about being carried by Robin and accepted his faith as a potato sack whose job was to faintly swing on his friend´s angular shoulder.

“Yes, I had to pick this package up from our porch. It is supremely big relief to own some strong pair of arms”, Robin answered instead and flexed her free hand that didn´t hold Sanji in place.

“Ay, you are right”, Franky said with even bigger shit eating grin while making ridiculous poses that reminded Sanji of those bodybuilder contests.

“Alright now you two are just being mean with you advantages in arm wrestling”, Sanji huffed, while trying to cross his arms in the difficult bent position he was in. He was pretty jealous of Franky and Robin. While he did have quite admirable arm strength, really, who wouldn´t have if they relayed on their arms alone on daily basis. His muscles just weren´t nearly as visible as Robin´s. It didn´t help the outcome that Sanji usually wore long sleeves.

“Yeah but you can´t deny the rule that guns get you hons and hons with guns makes you fall in love”, Franky teased, wiggling his naturally dull brown eyebrows at Sanji.

“Sorry bro, I don´t make the rules.”

“Go fuck yourself Franky.”

“Haha, alright now sorry”, Franky surrendered and lowered his hands to rest on his knees while he sat cross legged.

 Robin patted Sanji´s back as an apology and finally started let him down on one of the kitchen´s chairs. She also gave the blonde back his backpack and he nodded with gratitude and unzipped it to reveal the two containers he had taken along. Carefully ripping the tape sealing both of the caskets and opening them, he hoped that the contents hadn´t been mushed into colorful paste goo with all the jostling of the bag. To his relief the French pie didn´t look too tortured, same with the chocolate cookies, all was well.

As Sanji laid the tin case and the plate with the canopy on the table, Franky had gotten up from his scattered metal nest he had created on the kitchen floor, taking away some safe walking space of the parquet and kitchen rugs.

“Oh man, you got pie too”, Franky said and leaned over Sanji´s shoulder to look at the pastries the baker had taken with him.

“Well, I got a reputation to live up to don´t I?” Sanji said. It was his time to grin now.

“Well you aren´t fooling around with that one bro.”

“Damn straight.” Sanji said, his head held up high and a hand on his chest to stress the comical “proud” act more.

Robin put a big oval shaped plate on top of the round table and Sanji gave her nod with an appreciating ‘thank you’. She had also asked which hot drink the two preferred at the moment and after two similar answers, she poured water to a kettle for some evening tea. Sanji had gotten to a task of placing some of the cookies on the plate while he waited. It wasn´t much to do so he took his time to carefully put the chocolate chip cookies into an aesthetically pleasing set. Franky got his attention a few moments afterwards.

“So do you know how tall you are?” The blue haired man asked as he had gone back to his very work-in-progress and was carefully making the metallic frame to lean against green tapestry that decorated the walls.

“Not really?” Sanji answered from behind the table that was slowly gathering more tableware as Robin set the table with flower patterned, dark blue porcelain cups.

“Is it for the wheelchair? At least that was Sanji´s best guess at the moment.

“Yeah, to make everything feel comfortable and stuff. The usual”, Franky nodded and scratched his neck absentmindedly.

“There isn´t much to be done without getting the measurements, but it´s a start. Don´t worry if you are still growing, you are 21 right? I´ll make it so it can be altered some”, Franky explained as he watched Sanji´s expression to change from wonder to gratitude. The blonde had a start of a small smile coming on his lips.

“Pretty radical if I say so myself, yeah?”

“Yeah, thanks Franky” Sanji said sheepishly.

“This is so much I… You don´t even own me anything”, Sanji started and flailed his hands a little. Right now the metal base didn´t look much anything but Franky was insanely talented in his line of career. Sanji was sure that the finished version was going to make him possibly weep. Possibly, alone in his apartment. Where there were absolutely no one around to witness it.

“Damn, now I´m getting emotional”, Sanji confessed and leaned his chin on his palm with a huff.

“Nah, don´t worry about it. You deserve an easier lifestyle”, Franky said, the shipwright feeling proud of making his friend happier.

“And for the repayment, just give a big slice of that thing and it´s all okay” Franky said and jabbed his finger towards the French pie.

“Man, what´s in that thing? Looks good.”

“Oh, okay then”, Sanji said, feeling a little overwhelmed.

“It has raspberries for fillings. Took it with me from work”, Sanji said, feeling the need to clarify further.

“Raspberries, super.”

“Sounds lovely”, Robin agreed in a lenient tone as she placed a steaming porcelain teapot, identical to the teacups, on the table over a potholder. She gave a quick peck on Franky´s cheek after the rather big man had dragged a third chair to accompany the two surrounding the table that was buried in a tablecloth. Sanji on the other hand had taken on pouring tea to all three cups. It was rather difficult considering that between the cups was a fence of pastries and silverware.

“So how is your brother doing? You mentioned him earlier”, Robin asked. She had also sat down on her seat and was patiently taking her coat off. She favored her right arm as she carefully pulled at the blue sleeve.

“Huh? Law is doing okay I guess. He has only really complained about minor issues”, Sanji said as he raised his head. He still had to pour the hot substance for himself.

“Apparently Luffy is giving him constant headaches”, Sanji chuckled. He remembered taking Luffy along one day as he had went to see Law. Law had given a call for their nuisance of an uncle to come to pick them up for a family meeting and Luffy did live close by the hospital. Might as well go the same way and while he was at it, Sanji could very well introduce Luffy to Law at least for an amusing reaction. When they had reached the rehabilitation section where Law worked specialized as rehabilitation medicine specialist.

And when Luffy saw the dark haired scraggy doctor, Sanji swore that at that moment he had seen Luffy´s onyx colored eyes light up and his trade mark toothed smile had appeared in a millisecond of time. Sanji had recognized that look. Basil had gotten the same expression from the dark haired young man when Sanji had introduced them to each other. It was the ‘You are going to be my friend and there is no way out of this fact’-look which most likely made the object of said look regret everything. With that stated now and with no way of controlling his decibel levels, Luffy had shouted at the top of his lungs a strangled sounding “Hi!” at the already confused looking Law. The barely recognizable word had violently startled the doctor, making him drop his coffee mug. The aftermath had been a stream of shouting and colorful curses that made Sanji quite proud for the creativeness. It was a start of maybe a little worrisome friendship between those two. Pure agony and catastrophe as Law had described the situation that was Monkey D. Luffy to Sanji while looking like he was ready to jump out of a two story building. Though, the thing with Luffy was that once you came to terms that you were permanently stuck with this physical form of happiness, you started to get pretty attached to the deaf Brazilian boy. That´s how it always worked apparently.

“Hah, sounds like Luffy alright. Poor Law”, Franky laughed between bites of the crispy galette, his deep voice rumbling in his throat.

“Yeah, he got an intern last week though. Told me that he is only 15 something old”, Sanji continued and lowered his hand next to the table for height measurement.

“A prodigy, a tiny one too. Maybe Law can convince the kid to keep an eye on Luffy.

“Hmm, poor intern then. I kind of feel bad for the small gal”, Franky commented with a smirk. He was hallway his second piece of the pie and Sanji tried his best to ignore the shipwright´s fast spaced gobbling.

“Might be the best for the child if he wants to become a doctor. He gets to experience difficult patients first hand that way. Work, in some cases can feel a bit overpowering”, Robin said, joining in the conversation.  She was sitting her legs crossed under the table. She had discarded her jacket on the backrest of the chair where it hung in folds. Her black and white shirt was sleeveless. Mainly because from around the shoulder joint of her right hand there grew two other arms. The other just a half of a palm with three fingers and the other one was a perfectly full grown arm that swung by her side slightly with the movement of her dominant right hand. She had told him that the other two didn´t work, they were basically a dead weight that she couldn´t get off as the arms were fused with her shoulder blade and the main arm. She had a mutilation disorder named Polymelia. Well, technically it had been the cause of a conjoined twin but as the twin had degenerated almost completely it had been classified as the former. Actually, Sanji and Robin had become friends because of this condition.

Sanji himself had an inherited disorder of Phocomelia in which the affected has certain mutation or a lack of body part. The funny thing was that you had to get the gene from both of your parents. Sanji had always had bad luck and it seemed it had been so from the start. This was why he sat on a wheelchair. Simply because his legs were underdeveloped.  It didn´t bother him that much, they were simply his legs. Just like Robin´s arms where Robin´s own. She was a lot more confident with them though as she liked to surreptitiously show of her arm strength with sleeveless shirts. Again, Sanji was reminded of how envious he was of this fact. The two had met a few years ago at the central hospital. They had both been there for completely different reasons, but as the two of them talked about their extra limbs or the lack of it, they had found it highly ironic. And thus they had become good friends in a short amount of time. Nowadays they both considered each other as their best friend because of the profound relationship and platonic love they shared.

“Sometimes it pays off though”, Sanji said reassuringly and took a sip of his tea. He saw her shaking her head a little. Now was not the time to talk about her work issues. She probably didn´t want to make Franky worry. Respecting that decision he nodded, leaving it be. Knowing Robin, she would leave his issues alone as well. They might both be a little pathetic at this. Actually no, Sanji cringed at that thought. He was the pathetic one with a probability of a stick stuck far up his own ass as he couldn´t admit that carrying a heart decease and having Phocomelia and simultaneously not giving a fuck about his health problems was indeed, just a bit problematic. Robin on the other hand was absolutely an angel. She had good reasons. He just hoped she wouldn´t work herself to near death.  The thought alone scared Sanji.

“Yes, sometimes it does”, Robin nodded. Her golden and blue earrings the shape of a long rain drop gleamed in the warm natural light the windows provided.

****

The rest of the evening went jovially. Franky, after an hour of talking had gotten up and gone back to work on the wheelchair. Robin had asked him to take her coat to the actual coat rack as the shipwright was about to go hunt down measuring tape across the house. After the task of getting Sanji measured and the results had been jotted down, Franky had given him a nod that everything was now okay. The shipwright had then slumped back on the floor exactly to the same spot Sanji and Robin had found him. The two had continued their small chatter then. Mostly talking about family. Olvia was doing well in her studies of a recently founded Aztec relic from Middle America. There seemed to be some chances that they had found some new information about the ancient civilization´s beliefs. Sanji on other hand complained how his uncle was a useless pink feathery ass as he had apparently laughed hysterically as his own brother had tripped and spilled olive oil all over their gas stove, making the kitchen light up. It wasn´t unusual, but Sanji would have liked the shitty flamingo to be a little more considered of Corazon. If Cora was going to get a heart attack because of all this shittyness, Sanji could swore he was going to get one too.

 

 

It was around eleven as they were cleaning the table. Or more like Robin was, though she had lifted Sanji to sit on one of the kitchen counters near the sink because he had insisted on helping. Sanji was slouched over as he was literally ‘sitting’ in the space between a counter and a cupboard. All this so he could wash some of the bigger tableware and silverware as they couldn´t be put to the dishwasher. Franky was trying his best not to laugh at the half sitting, half lying blonde who had a dishcloth in one hand. Sanji appreciated the effort though. He felt pretty ridiculous too, but there was no backing down as he had placed this upon himself.

There wasn´t really no point for Sanji to go home and as Robin had offered him to stay overnight, he had accepted. The Baratie did open around 9am and he would have plenty of time to get to the café with the morning bus schedule. The only thing he wasn´t really fond of was that he had to sleep in his casual day clothes and they were definitely going to feel tacky the tomorrow morning. Oh well, you can´t always get everything. Sanji had come to follow that piece of thought a lot.

He lied down on his usual sleeping place, the sofa. It was the newer one since Franky had destroyed the older one by slumping too hard on the light spring attuned seats. It hadn´t ended up well. He had taken of his waistcoat and tucked himself under an orange blanket he had been given. As a pillow he had one of the couch´s decorative pillows and that was enough for him. He couldn´t see much in the darkness of the living room but some of the outlines of bigger furniture. Sanji closed his eyes, his eyelids sheltering his vision from the familiar surroundings.  Sanji hadn´t really expected to be woken up the next morning two hours earlier than he had planned by Law who pleaded him to come to his rescue from a monster wearing a stylish straw hat. A ‘monster’ who was laughing rather obnoxiously loud and out of key in the background.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanji woke up with a start as a loud ringtone came from the floor. It took him a little while as he fumbled half way over the coach´s edge so he could grab the noisy device up. His fine mechanics hadn´t yet started working, and as most of his hair was a disheveled mess in front of his eyes, it was actually pretty damn hard to do such a simple task as picking an object.  The bright artificial light of the screen made him blink several times before he could squint at the three letters written on it. Sanji lifted the phone on his ear with his non numb arm. He had apparently slept while using his left forearm as an additional pillow. As the result, his skin was tingling uncomfortably.

 

 

 

His eardrums where instantly attacked with fast paced and angry sounding Spanish and as Sanji was not ready to translate just after waking up and had no cup of coffee what so ever, the only thing leaving his mouth as a reply was a disoriented “what?”

“Sanji, I need you to immediately haul this inconvenience off my office,” came a demanding gruff voice over the line. The voice had changed languages to fluent French with a hint of an accent, showing of his intelligence that reached lingual levels just as much as medical side Sanji knew this person had.

“Wait… uh do you mean Luffy?” Sanji asked, running a list of people he knew in his head. He had also switched to French, his mother tongue to ease his start of the day. He tried to comb through his wavier than usual morning hair at the same time, but the thin fingers got easily tangled to the unforgiving mess of blonde bangs.

“I don´t really recall any other person who could get such a bright idea of bothering a sleep deprived rehabilitation medicine specialist at six in the morning.” The answer´s tone was a very cynical one, and the owner of it seemed to be ready to strangle someone with an electric cord.

“Ah,” Sanji said simply. He was trying his best to pay attention to his brother´s elegy while tucking his fingers free from his own hair, one at a time. 

“Law, it´s still 6 am. How am I exactly going to get my ass there to haul your inconvenience off your office?” Sanji asked. He had taken his abandoned watch from the floor, the same place he had put his vest and the phone yesterday to form a bundle.

“It´s too early for this shit.”

“It´s too early for this shit for me,” Law muttered to Sanji trough the phone, clearly having his own opinion on the situation.

“Look, I´ve only gotten three cups of caffeine this morning, three. Not to mention there is already an actual monkey tackling me because the said person is bored”.

“My work starts at nine. I could still be sleeping, you know,” Sanji continued to protest, his voice sounding groggy. He had gotten back to leaning on the coach pillow. It really was too early for this shit, no matter what anyone said.

“Oh no, how awful,” came from Law´s end of the phone line. Sanji could imagine Law rolling his eyes. Well the sarcasm was justified, Sanji decided. Since Law´s working hours were longer and started early due to the stack of paperwork he refused to take home, saying it was taking away his precious alone time with his television. And of course, the miserable people in weird TV programs he had the chance to laugh at quietly.

Sanji sighed once again. He guessed he had no way out of this situation. Though having Luffy at his own work was not really something he appreciated either. At least Law worked at a hospital but with Sanji, Luffy would be sitting the whole day next to food display. The baker would have to watch the black haired hoodlum the whole day since self-resistance and Luffy didn´t go together, not at all.

“Fine, I´ll sacrifice my morning for you,” Sanji said flatly with reluctance.

“Just so you know, you still have to endure Luffy for a half to one hour.”

“Are you at Robin´s?” Law asked with his slightly tempered voice via phone line.

“Yeah.”

Sanji could hear Law´s faint muttering of “I should have known” and “I can´t believe this bad timing.” From this, Sanji concluded that his answer wasn´t very pleasant to his brother, as the hospital was understandably located to the city center, or at least the very side of the center.

“It can´t be that bad. You just have to tell him to wait. Say that I´m coming or some other shit,” Sanji tried to assure Law while pondering if he still had some left over cookies from yesterday or if the shipwright munched everything up during night time. Sanji certainly hadn´t been woken up by Franky at the ungodly hours so there was still hope. But on the other hand, was it considered rude to take the rest of the cookies with him? He really had to think this through.

There was a muted sound of Law talking. He had probably turned to Luffy to do just what Sanji had told. There was a small pause as the baker waited, still lying cozily on the coach.

“He is signing me something. I have no idea what though,” Law´s voice came back to break the silence. This time it sounded a little uncomfortable.

“Huh? Why? I thought you had learned at least the basics by now? Also wouldn´t it help with your job?” Sanji asked. That was slightly odd coming from Law.

“…Well the sign language is an interesting way of communicating. But if Luffy would just use pen and paper for conversations I wouldn´t have any beneficial needs to learn it. And for your information, I´m a doctor, and even though a speech therapist might fall in to same section in the specialization area, my job is completely different.”

“Come on, you already speak three other languages. One more won´t kill you. Besides, Luffy would really appreciate it,” Sanji kept on persuading. He wasn´t really seeing Law´s point.

“By strangling me to death with a hug resembling Heimlich maneuver?”

“Pretty much yes,” Sanji smirked.

“I guess I´ll reconsider. Though, right now I have to go back to writing off this loathsome amount of wood pulp,” Law said, there were faint sounds of fumbling of thin office papers. He was probably resting the phone between his shoulder and chin as Law´s voice sounded a tad louder.

“Paper work weighting down?”

“Yes, I´ll see you later. And be punctual, okay?” Law said and as he got all the more reassuring “right” from his technically little brother, the young doctor hung up.

Sanji let the phone slide from his hand back on top of the vest still lying on the floor as he concentrated on waking up. He messaged his temple as he looked at the light flooding to the living room through large windows that were half covered by blinds, thinking maybe getting nearly blinded would help the progress.

“Law, I presume?”

Sanji turned to look at the direction where Robin´s voice came from. She was leaning against a white door frame with coffee cups in both of her hands. This time the cups didn´t look as expensive and delicate but something that anyone could have in their kitchen.

Sanji pulled himself back to the sitting position as fast as he could the moment he saw her. However, the quick motion made his vision blur for a second, almost making him fall off the couch.

“Oh, sorry dear. Yeah it was Law”, Sanji replied to her as he balanced himself on the soft cushions.

“He was asking me to come to his rescue.”

 To this clarification of Sanji´s, he only got a raised black eyebrow as to indicate further questioning from Robin.

“Luffy,” Sanji said, putting the explanation short and pleasant. There really wasn´t any need to simplify it further.

“What is he doing at Law´s office at this time of such an early morning?” She mused as she walked closer to Sanji´s makeshift bed and neatly sat on her legs next to the couch. Sanji shrugged and took one of the ceramic cups Robin was offering between his palms, gratefully. The heat of the coffee was radiating to his hands through the cream colored mug.

Sanji shrugged as he looked at Robin who took a sip of her own black, strong coffee.

“Can I suggest a ride to the hospital?” She asked surreptitiously.

“Are you offering?”

Robin nodded as she stirred the black substance with a thin metal spoon.  In the painfully bright morning light it was a little easier to notice the few shades darker color featured on her brown skin, surrounding the edges of her lower eyelids.

“Are you sure? I just… You look like you should go back to sleep,” the blond explained. He really hoped his conversation with Law hadn´t woken her up. It was a very narrow change thinking that her and Franky´s bedroom was located on the upper floor. But well, this was Robin, she was a light sleeper, and Sanji was almost sure she had extra pair of eyes and ears on her back. The thought was terrifying yet fascinating.

“I’m alright; I got the required amount of sleep last night. Besides, I have to get to the museum. My mother sent a few of the remnants found from the excavation yesterday, it seems. I have to see if they are suitable to make artificial copies of them. My job also requires me to send the real remnants afterwards to the specialists. Also there is the matter of finding a suitable placement in the next exhibition.”

“Robin, I´m sorry but I think you should know there is this thing called sleep dept…” Sanji commented carefully with an apologetic look as he fiddled with the ceramic surface of his mug.  Most of her explanation of the day had gone right through his ears as he had only concentrated on her first argumentative words.

“My, where is all this sass coming from today mister baker?” She chuckled with mischief apparent on her sharp edged features. She squinted her eyes to near slits at Sanji while smiling.

“Apparently from my now crumbling confidence,” he said and leaned on his palm that was not carrying his precious mug. He muttered a quiet “sorry” with a bashful smile.

“Why are you even apologizing? It´s all for the sake of innocuous bantering,” she said still smiling.

“I will be the most surprised if you managed to somehow get under my skin. That is if you are even capable of such thing.”

“Hmm, true,” Sanji agreed and took a gulp of his own, half empty mug.

“Though really dear, it must sound like I´m nagging about this. But I´m really worried about you and your health,” Sanji said emphasizing the ‘and’.

“In all honesty I can say the exact same to you.”

“Yeah, but-,” Sanji objected while distressed. Such a difficult conversation. He sighed in resignation while taking yet another taste of his coffee.

“Maybe I could talk to him about this…” Sanji thought out loud. He was a little skeptic of that idea though.

“How many times have you actually talked to your uncle´s fiancé by your free will?” Robin asked with a questioning look. Sanji was pretty sure though that she already had a good idea of his answer and was just proving a point.

“…Five? I think?” Sanji said, counting his encounters with the robust wealthy man in a fur coat that Sanji wasn´t really sure was actually real or just dyed to a weird greenish shade.

“And how many years did you live under the same roof?”

“Four,” Sanji said shortly and as he got the epitome of ‘I fucking new it’ in her expression, he knew her intention had indeed been to simply prove a point. Also proving the point that she should also be skeptical of his idea about talking to the museum´s owner.

“Sanji, I have just as much, if not more, difficulties to come in terms with Sir Crocodile. And he is technically your family member.”

“Alright, I guess I get your point,” Sanji said, his shoulders slumping.

“I just really want to ease your situation. We both know he doesn´t really give two shits about the property rights of the museum with the whole casino ownership going on. I´m not really that surprised of why the museum is in such a state,” he complained, downing the rest of the coffee before carefully placing the empty mug on the carpet, just next to the so called small pile of his belongings.

“You strive so hard to keep the place intact, while officially you are still just… whatever they call it,” he paused to firmly grasp his words, “the curator´s intermediary, while the real one shows up once a month. Smooth going Sir Crocs, smooth going,” Sanji said and shook his head in irritation.

“The family habit is still going strong I see.”

“Yeah… It´s still something uncle likes to say a lot. The two of them are equally shitty to each other as for other people, I guess the nickname just stuck with all of us,” Sanji explained and gestured for Robin to forget about it. Habitual nicknames and other silly stuff caused by family was kind of embarrassing to reveal to others. Except, there wasn´t really much to keep from Robin, as she definitely knew that the whole family had formed different nicknames to one another. Such as ‘Sir Crocs’, which made the man in question fizzle in humiliation on their times of visits to the public areas.

“Well Donquixote Doflamingo is one of a kind,” Robin commented in wonder.

“Agreed,” he replied. Sanji could almost see the always present, weirdly shaped sunglasses and a pink pilled hirsute sweater that Sanji was pretty sure the man had swished from some rundown thrift shop many, many years ago.

“Albeit, I think they suit each other quite well,” the dark haired woman added, getting a complying “The assholes deserve each other,” from Sanji.

“Are you ready to go in a few minutes?” Robin then asked as she got up from the floor, dusting off the nonexistent dirt from her high waisted, flower printed pants with her free hand. She then crouched to pick up Sanji´s mug.

“Yeah, just a sec,” Sanji said with a nod after he had thanked Robin for the morning coffee.

As Robin walked off the living room and disappeared from the baker´s sight, Sanji picked up his pinstriped vest tentatively from the floor, as it still had his watch and phone on top. He watched as the small devices slid off the light pinstriped fabric back to the soft carpet underneath. He got dressed quickly, fumbling a little with the small white buttons, though his movements had gotten more ingenious after the coffee boost. Scooping up the abandoned devices, Sanji then strapped his watch on his wrist with a practiced ease and tugged his phone deep in to his vest´s pocket.

When Robin came back with her long coat resting on her hands, the baker was still sorting out his dull colored hair. He really should make it a habit to take more necessary things with him on his visits to this household, since more than half of the time he ended up staying overnight. You know, like a damn hair brush would be very useful.

“I put your chair and bag on the back of the car”, she mentioned to Sanji as she waited for him to stop his hasty grooming. Franky had carried the wheelchair inside for the night yesterday, as there had been some forecasting for possible rain.

“I still wonder how it even fits there,” Sanji mused. His heavy chair was in fact, not capable of folding to smaller shape for storing and transportation.

“It is the sport of immense calculation and pure strength. Although, I do hope the windows will be alright after the amount of abuse the car is going to go through,” she shrugged.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Sanji said, shifting closer to the edge of the couch.

“Does this mean you are going to carry me again?” Sanji asked subtly. His hands resting on either side of his stump legs, gripping the couch´s edge.

“It would help our start of the day at least,” Robin replied, not really answering his question but giving him the right to choose for himself.

“Well… I´m not really keen on dragging myself through the front yard. Not saying your garden isn´t lovely or anything,” Sanji muttered hesitantly.

“Small stones and dirt don´t sound very appealing.”

“Understandably so,” Robin sniggered and bent to pick Sanji up, who seemed to be more committed this time around, circling his arms around her neck to give more support to the process. This time he was being carried bridal style. It was a lot more comfortable than the yesterday´s carrying method, so he kept his mouth shut and concentrated on making her task at hand just a little easier by staying as still as he could. He also helped by opening the front door as Robin´s hands were not available for that at the moment.

As they arrived next to the car, or more particularly it´s front seat, Sanji opened the front door as well before he was placed on the single seat.

“See, it´s a lot easier for the both of us if we are cooperative with the carrying business,” Robin said smirking.

“I guess… I´ll keep this in mind then, dear.”

“Good,” She said satisfied. Robin then closed Sanji´s door and went around the front for the driver´s seat.

“Ready to go for the possible near death experience of vehicles colliding?” She asked with a teasing smile after they had fastened their seatbelts.

“I trust your skills not to do that, dear,” Sanji smiled back and watched as she started the engine, turning the car keys with a twist of her wrist.

****

“All set,” Robin said as she lowered Sanji back on his wheelchair after she dragged the metallic small vehicle out of the car on the hard pavement.

“Thanks Robin for all the help,” Sanji said warmly as he accepted his blanket and once again spread the piece of thick fabric over his legs.

“No problem,” Robin replied with a kind expression and laid Sanji´s backpack on his lap.

“Alright then, I guess I have to go before Law pops a vein there,” Sanji joked lightly and straightened his arms forward, indicating a possible hug which Robin complied to right away.

“Give Law my regards,” Robin said, as her chin rested on the blonde’s shoulder and her arms around the thin frame that was Sanji. It was a little more difficult due to her extra arms and the fact that Sanji was sitting with the bag between the two of them. But those were minor issues, nothing to stop the small gesture of affection.

“And to the rest of your family as well.”

“Of course. Say hi to Olvia from me too,” Sanji replied as they parted from the hug. He ended up waving to Robin as she climbed back to the car. The deep red vehicle went back to the traffic and slowly, but surely, Sanji turned his wheelchair towards the large public building covered in pale red and brown tiles.

 

 

He made his way on the flat asphalt until he reached the entrance that was fortunately provided with automatic doors. He kept on pushing the wheels forward over the beige colored carpet flooring as he made a few turns, trying his best to give some space for the by passers. The walls in the wide hallways were natural white, giving an isolating vibe to those who visit often, like himself. Sanji came to a halt when he got to the specific elevator he had been looking for in the vast building. The elevators, two of them, were marked with vibrant blue. Next to them was a list imprinted on a slab colored with the same blue as the elevator markings. Among the list of white text there read ‘4k Rehab’. Nodding to himself, Sanji pressed the right button that lit up with blue hue around it.  Then it was time for the short waiting game. Though, sometimes it just took a tad bit longer for various reasons.

For Sanji´s delight, the elevator came down relatively quickly with its usual high-pitched beep to notify of its presence.  After wheeling himself in and pressing the right floor button, just like that he reached the rehabilitation section where his brother worked. There was still a simple door and homely decorated hallway to go through before he would reach his destination.

As Sanji opened the mentioned door, he quickly realized it was a lot lighter than he had first anticipated and to his horror he ended up actually slamming the door open. There was a noisy bang that made the baker instantly regret his actions. In a state of slight distraught he could hear a low voice loudly cursing between complaining groans. He hadn´t gotten even one single glimpse of the man he had accidentally battered as the door had swung neatly back to its place. It wasn´t clear if that was because of the force he had used or if the hinges keep in the door intact had some kind of back spring attached to them. The only reason he was even wondering this little detail was the fact his pointy nose was dangerously close to touching the forest green surface of the door that had caused all this misery for him and the stranger.

As the verbal abuse went on, Sanji had instinctively jammed his shoulders up to par with his ears in defensive way with both hands slightly raised in front, ready if the person on the other side was thirsty for some revenge. Such as slamming the door right into Sanji´s face. He wasn´t really sure if the hinges went both ways, but he wasn´t very keen on finding out.

After the person seemed to have calmed down a little as the cursing had ceased. The wheelchair bound baker opened the light door that kept two hospital sections separated. This time he twisted the handle as gently as he could though.

On the other side there was a man, nursing his face with what appeared to be a stump of an arm, covered in an orange pullover hoodie´s sleeve. The sleeve, or both of them actually since he seemed to be missing both of his arms, were tied into basic knots. Sanji couldn´t see the man´s face as it was mostly buried under the fabric of his left sleeve. It wasn´t really helping that the man was bend over so the only thing Sanji could see was two angular yet thin eyebrows knitted together. The stranger´s hair had been dyed moss green and the color mix of the orange hoodie and the green hair lead the baker to think of a one specific vegetable species.

“I… uh shit, I´m sorry? I didn’t see you there,” Sanji tried as he still could hear some angry muttering. He was holding the door open so it couldn´t sway back and lean uncomfortably against Sanji´s side as he was still hallway through the doorway.

“There is a fucking window there to avoid these kind of situations shithead,” the man grunted.

Sanji was a little taken aback by this and as the words registered in his mind, he turned to look at the door. First he didn´t really see anything else than the clean green wood but as he strained his neck to look upwards he raised his eyebrows. Well what do you know, there actually was a window, a window he hadn´t noticed all these years he had went through this door for a reason or another, the main point being it was too damn high up for him to even see anything through it.

“Right,” Sanji said shortly, sarcasm strongly present in his tone as he kept on eyeing the rectangle shaped glass. The baker suspected that the man hadn´t yet actually seen Sanji or his condition, so he shouldn´t really judge this person yet. And since the blond had slammed a large piece of wood straight in to the guy´s face, he guessed that it was understandable. But fuck had the man been rude even though Sanji had apologized as soon as he could have. So with that in mind, he decided the green haired man now was officially on his shit-list.

“Well then, are you going to just stand in the way?” Sanji retorted and crossed his arms while he waited for the man´s reaction.

The green haired man snapped his head up with a scowl and was ready to speak up his mind, but as he took in Sanji´s appearance, he stopped in his tracks with a confusing look in his face. The man´s slanted, almond shaped brown eye glanced down towards Sanji´s legs and then back at the door and the baker swore he could see the wheels turning in the guy´s head. The man in question then stiffly shifted into his full height. Now Sanji could see the rest of this rude man easily.

He was definitely tall and the body structure was akin to a heavy closet kind of type. His light, reddish brown skin complimented the green colored hair that had been combed back. He guessed the man´s guardian had done that since the guy obviously couldn´t do much to his own appearance. His face was angular with sharp cheek bones and in the middle of his face rested a straight but big nose. Though those features certainly made the man´s appearance look unique, there was also a long gash like scar running vertically over his face to complete the look. It went all the way from the temple, through his left eye sealing it shut and ended midway his cheek. The scar seemed to be rather new since it still had stiches decorating the healing skin.

“Uh I…” The man started. He shifted his weight as he seemed to be looking for words.

“I guess shouldn´t have said that,” the man muttered.

Sanji looked at the man with squinted eyes. That seemed to be some form of an apology since the man didn´t look like he was any good with those. Sanji decided that was good enough, for now. Maybe he would remove the man from his short lived moment on the hate list. Well it was time to move on.

“Alright, I guess that is as good as it gets. I did accidentally maul you with a door so…” Sanji said and shrugged. This made the man ease up a little.

The carrot man, as Sanji had out of amusement named the green haired man in an orange hoodie, then started to look around the floor with a somehow edgy expression. His gaze stopped to a certain spot on the floor and he crunched his thin eyebrows together yet again. Out of curiosity Sanji decided to follow this carrot´s eye and where he was looking at. On the light brown carpet floor there laid a small crumbled stack of folded papers.

“Are those yours?” Sanji asked as he kept on looking at the paper pile. He was rather interested on how the man had held those papers previously but by further examination he saw a row of small dents in the corner of the sheets. He could just imagine the carrot man here carrying them between his teeth and then getting attacked by Sanji. The collision must have made him drop the papers. In a way he was starting to feel sympathy towards this person. 

“Yeah, it´s not that important just let it be,” the carrot man said nonchalantly.

“I´ll ask someone from the staff to pick them up,” he continued, though he was still eyeing the papers. Sanji wasn´t really buying it.

“You know, those look rather important to me,” Sanji replied just as nonchalantly, giving the green haired man a pointed look. Sanji sighed and placed his backpack on the floor next to his wheelchair, with his blue blanket getting the same fate.

“What are you doing?” previously named carrot man asked bluntly as Sanji moved a little closer to the papers with his wheel chair. The man spared only few glances at Sanji´s lacking legs before going back to looking at the baker´s face with a questioning frown. Good.

“What does it look like? I´m trying to help you with what I caused,” Sanji said while bending forward from his chair.

“You really shouldn´t.”

To this Sanji gave the carrot man another pointed look as he said the words “Watch me.” With that, he reached even more forward until his fingertips could almost touch the rough texture of the carpeted hallway floor. But just like the man had said, he really shouldn´t have done so.

Sanji lost his balance with an ungraceful grunt as he collided temple first with the ground. His nose was now almost touching the papers he had tried to so suavely pick up. He should have thought this trough at least twice. He took a moment or two to nurse his own forehead with a disgruntled whine. Well as long as the carrot person didn´t say any snarky comments about his inevitable fall, maybe his pride was going to pull through. Just maybe.

“Okay… well that would have gone a lot better in so many different ways,” Sanji said sheepishly and tried not to give any attention to the growing ugly headache ticking at his skull. Sanji was now laying on his stomach while supporting his upper body with the help of his forearms. The baker decided to not get offended by the mutter of “I told you,” that the armless man directed at him and with that, he grabbed the papers that seemed to have gotten even more grumbled by Sanji´s fall.

“Yeah, yeah,” the baker said, offering the clump of sheets to the man.

“Though, I guess we are even now,” he added with a smirk. The green haired man raised his eyebrows at that. He seemed to stare at Sanji for a minute, like he was giving more value to Sanji and his actions.

 

 

“Just take your goddamn papers, carrot,” Sanji finally said, handing the papers towards the man.

“A carrot?”

“Yes, you,” Sanji verified by pointing at the man´s hair and then at his attire with the papers still in his hand.

“Fine then, swirly,” the man replied visibly annoyed, proceeding to crouch on Sanji´s level to gently take the paper pile between his teeth.

“Wow, well aren´t you creative.”

“You were pretty much asking for it”, the carrot man replied to Sanji´s sarcasm with a suspiciously clear voice for a person with mouth full of official health papers.

“Whatever, and by the way you are welcome for those shitty papers,” Sanji said, regardless of the fact that the man hadn´t really even thanked him.

“Rehab papers are pretty important matter,” he finished and started to crawl back towards his chair. The quicker he was getting out of this situation the better.

“Wait, rehab?” the carrot man asked puzzled.

“Yeah, rehabilitation papers. Information of your medication and exercises and the list goes on,” Sanji replied while trying to raise himself on the wheelchair. To his dismay, the chair wouldn´t stay put as he had once again forgotten to put his breaks down. He cursed loudly.

“So this section is a rehabilitation center?” the man asked as he walked behind the metallic chair so it couldn´t get any further and Sanji was finally able to climb back to his seat with a single nod of gratitude.

“Well there are two of them here.  Are you a new patient?” Sanji asked and as he picked up the blanket he had dumped on the floor, splayed it, and went back to pick up his just as abandoned backpack.

“Not really…” the carrot man said slowly.

“I´m on the wrong freaking section then.”

This made Sanji pause and turn his head the best he could to look at the green haired man behind him. Was it even possible to get this lost in a hospital where every single place and section was decorated by big bold letters and arrows?

“Are you actually saying you are lost in the kind of isolated department where you have to get to by riding an elevator?” The ‘are you serious’ was strongly displayed in Sanji´s question.

“Shut up, the floor maps are confusing,” the man retorted and looked at the wall next to him like it was the most interesting thing ever.  The motion making his three pointed, golden earrings clink to one another.

“Oh, you are totally lost alright,” Sanji commented. He couldn´t believe this was happening right now. This was even more ridiculous introduction than he had had with Basil.

“So, what are you even doing in the hospital?” The baker asked out of curiosity. Perhaps he could give some directions.

“Getting the stiches removed,” carrot man replied simply. Yeah, absolutely the most lost person Sanji had ever had the pleasure of meeting.

“The basic healthcare side is nowhere near here,” Sanji sighed, his head held low. He ignored the protest his sudden new companion was making and looked at his watch. Thanks to Robin he was early here. He had said to Law to wait for half or an entire hour for his arrival. He guessed he had no other options then than to help this person with a poor sense of direction.

“Come on celery head, I´m getting you to the right place,” he muttered and started to slowly turn around with his chair on the hallway.

“Now I´m a celery head? The hell is with your imagination?”

“Well at least is better than yours,” Sanji snorted, pushing the door open. Apparently the door did go both ways. He wasn´t really sure if that was a good thing for people´s health though.

“But don´t worry, you will always be carrot for me.”

“Very charming,” the man replied with a monotone voice and rolled his eyes. None the less, he started following the baker all the way to the lift.

“Why are you even here at eight? Isn´t that a just a bit too early to have an appointment?” Sanji questioned curiously. He pressed the bottom floor button while waiting for the answer, whatever it would be.

“Just uh, making sure I make it in time?”

“Are you telling me being hopelessly lost is a form of habit to you?” Sanji asked, quite in awe by the whole idea.

“Shut it, it can happen to everyone,” the man quickly said to his own defense.

“Sure it can. But getting more than occasionally lost sounds pretty worrisome to me,” Sanji argued at the man who pretty much growled back a half-assed insult.

They entered the elevator and once again the blond pressed the button. It was odd how easily he seemed to argue with the orange hooded man. Or more like, how comfortable he felt about it. Even getting insulted didn´t seem so bad… It did tick him off though, at least enough to insult back. It was still a little different than his fights with Bellamy. Sanji glanced at the man, it wasn´t the most subtle move as he couldn´t look through his bangs since the man was standing on his left side. It didn´t really help that Sanji had to look upwards as well.

The carrot man was absentmindedly staring at the decorative pattern of squares on the metallic elevator´s ceiling. His jaw was clenched as he bit the corner of the papers. It looked a bit funny though. The man seemed to carry a bag with a shoulder strap on him. He had another strap that went around his waist, probably in case the strap on the shoulder supporting most of the weight of the small bag, decided to fall off.

“On second thought, do you want me to hold on to those papers for the time being?”

The man turned back to Sanji after the baker´s question with a suspicious glance.

“Come on, it´s not like I can just run off with your personal health records imprinted on paper.”

“I´m used to this, I don´t need any help,” the man said shortly and shrugged. Sanji simply copied the gesture and decided to let it be.

“You never told me yourself why you are here so early,” the man asked as they reached the bottom floor. That surprised the baker as the stranger didn´t seem to be much of a talker.

“Just helping an angry family member.”

“Are they angry at you specifically or just commonly pissed off at everything?” Carrot man asked as he let Sanji go out of the cramped metal box of an elevator first.

“Angry at another person. And knowing him, he is probably vexed at the whole world. Sanji explained with a benevolent smirk while thinking of his 26 years old brother with dark hair and tired eyes. Sanji should probably buy coffee as an apology from the cafeteria for being late. Though that would have to wait for after leading this lost green haired man to where he should be at.

The man acknowledged Sanji´s words with a grunt. They walked through the still surprisingly empty halls, considering this was a hospital building. The light coming from the windows covered the halls´ brown colors into warmer tones witch made the artificial surroundings more pleasant looking. It was rather nice how much light they still got until early winter would arrive.

It didn´t take but a few minutes to reach their destination, an open area of a waiting room for basic checkups. The seats scattered around were dark blue, a shade that resembled black. Next to most of them stood small, natural wood colored tables with an uneven pile of magazines and newspapers from who knows what year.

“Alright, we are here. Looks a bit more familiar to you?” Sanji said stopping on his tracks.

“Yeah,” the man answered nodding.

“Well then, I guess I´m leaving you here,” Sanji finished and started to turn his wheelchair around.

“Hey you, swirly,” the carrot man said, making Sanji stop his actions. He had half the mind to call him by another green plant name but decided against it as he saw the man looking at him yet again with knitted eyebrows and a half scowl. He seemed to be avoiding Sanji´s eyes and didn´t seem very eager on continue what he was about to say.  The man might have been slightly anxious but Sanji couldn´t really tell.

“What?” As Sanji didn´t get an answer, he just eyed at the man for a moment. He got a suspicious feeling that he knew what the problem was.

“You know where north is?” The man just shook his head, making his earrings sway and hit the side of his neck.

“Okay, do you know where the main entrance of this building is located?” This time his question got a pointed stump directed at where they had come from.

“No, we just came from there and took two turns,” Sanji corrected.

“Wow, I´m impressed,” he continued and crossed his arms. He was still half facing the green haired person because of his sudden stop earlier.

“I am literally stuck with a disoriented carrot, amazing.”

“I´d prefer if you stopped talking this instant,” then man snapped back.

“Fine, fine-“

“Stop talking,” the man retorted before the baker could finish what he was about to say.

Sanji raised his hands up as a sign he was giving up. And nodded at the man. It was better to not make someone murderous towards him if they happened to have the ability to kick Sanji and his chair.

“A very simple question for you, are you going to help me or not? Yes or no?” Carrot person asked while squinting his eye at Sanji in suspicion.

Sanji on the other hand sighed. Against his previous orders he did ask the man for verification if the carrot man´s appointment started at eight. Just like Sanji suspected the answer was a complying “yes”. He should assume the appointment was going to be about an hour long, sometimes even less. Even though Baratie was unfortunately located not as close as he would have liked to the hospital, not close at all. He would have to take a bus back and closer to the river. The point was, he would be late to his work no matter how quickly he dragged this person out of this public building that smelled like chemicals and disinfectant. But he would feel really shitty for leaving someone just to sit around.

“You can´t call anyone to pick you up?”

The carrot man just looked at Sanji like he was the biggest fool in the universe and beyond.

“With what?” He asked and raised his arms forward, practically shoving them to Sanji´s face. Both arms seemed to be cut short before the spot where elbows would normally start.

“Oh, fuck… Sorry,” Sanji muttered. It was rather easy to forget someone else´s problems when they weren´t a part of your own daily routine. He guessed he didn´t really have any other option.

“Yes,” he said shortly to the man. Zeff was going to kick his ass later for this.

“I will be here before nine then,” Sanji continued, not really looking forward to this.

“How am I sure you aren´t just going be oh so ‘forgetful’ and abandon me right here and go on your own merry way?” The man asked, raising one of his eyebrows close to his hairline.

“You think I´m going to leave your lost ass here to wonder aimlessly?” Sanji said and mirrored the man´s expression once again.

“Sounds about right,” the man hummed, not very amused by the whole thing.

“Besides we just met,” he pointed out to give his statement more weight.

“So, you are basically saying we need level ten friendship and bracelets to seal the deal so you can trust me not to be an asshole?” Sanji asked with a short laugh.

“With you? More like level ninety,” the man added with a small grin that made dimples appear on his reddish brown skin, making him a little more approachable. It was hard to see the narrow row of teeth with the papers still in the man´s mouth but it was still there, definitely.

“Seriously though, I´m going to come back here after I´ll drag a friend out of my brother´s office,” Sanji reassured and jabbed his finger at the man.

“You better come,” the green haired stranger said as a final which Sanji answered to with an agreement. And they went their own ways, with Sanji going back to his earlier task, turning his heavy wheelchair to face where they had come from.

****

Sanji exited the elevator a second time this morning. The place had gotten more lively now as he, this time gently, pushed the door to the waiting room open. He moved a bit slower since he was carrying coffee in a cardboard cup. He was pressing the cup between his thighs so he could push his chair´s wheels forward allowing more progress on his way. But for that he had had to remove his blanket and stuff it to his backpack. He might have gotten a few funny looks for that. Sanji didn´t really pay much attention back, he had gotten used to it. Though the couple of years’ usage of his comfortable blanket had become such a big normalcy for him. Not to have the familiar weight of the fabric pressed on his lap in public just felt odd.

He shrugged the feeling off as he stopped next to a door. The white door was placed on the left side, close to the end of the long hallway which was also provided as a waiting room.  In Sanji´s opinion they really needed to rearrange these places to be more wheelchair friendly since it was very likely two said chairs would be uncomfortably close to each other while passing. The whole point that he needed to complain for the staff about said subject was already pretty ridiculous. This was supposed to be a hospital for god´s sake.

He opened the door by its cold metal handle and pulled it open. Another thing that nagged him, since he had to back pedal to give the door room to swing open enough for the baker to whiz in.

Sanji was greeted by a sight of two figures sitting on a small couch which was located on the side, giving the room nice open area on the center. The figure sitting on the left end of the dimly green saturated couch was a tall, maybe even sickly thin looking man. He was sitting cross legged while looking at his conversation partner, his hand lightly resting on top of his knees for support. Sanji identified the person as his brother, Law immediately.

Law didn´t resemble Sanji at all. Most of his appearance was actually the complete opposite of the baker. In fact it would have been weird if they looked similar. They weren´t blood related after all. Law´s skin was a cold tone of brown and patches of his skin were a contrasting color of pale white skin. The most striking of these patches had to be the formation near Law´s lips, making it look like a line of three teeth. Another striking feature was that Law lacked a right arm. The young doctor´s white coat´s right sleeve was empty and had been left to dangle on the side, crumbled and folded at odd spots. In the office light Law´s messy black hair had blueish high lights running through the pointy strands. He was talking quietly, his mustard brown eyes following the other room occupant´s hands. The mustard eyes were heavily lidded with tired blackish rings surrounding the outlines of his lids. It was surprising to see Law this peaceful, not entirely uncommon but still a sight that should be taken in with appreciation. Even more so as he normally looked like someone had broken his toaster at 6am hell.

 

 

 

Sanji tried to get closer to the pair without being noticed but for his bad luck the small squeaking of the wheels´ junctions alerted Law´s attention to him.

“Well you finally arrived,” Law said with a wave of his only hand. The other person who was sitting on the couch followed Law´s gaze to the blond baker with curiosity. When the onyx eyes took in Sanji´s face, they light up and an overly warm grin was quickly plastered on the person´s face.

The person, Luffy, then got up from the couch with so huge amount of mustered energy and leapt towards the baker. Sanji could just barely safe the coffee by grapping the cup from its resting place before he was attacked by a literal mess of happiness that wrapped the blond in a tight hug.

“Sorry it took me awhile. I run into some problems,” Sanji said with a strangled voice as Luffy still had him on a bear hug, pressing his sides sturdily. Sanji somehow managed to return the hug with one arm gently placed on the younger man´s back and his coffee holding hand high out of any possible harm´s reach.

“On the bright side, I got you coffee,” Sanji continued and raised the cup a little higher so Law could definitely see it.

“I guess that is highly appreciated right now,” Law said and got up from the couch as well, though a lot more calm than the straw hatted man who still didn´t seem to be ready to let go of Sanji.

Luffy had a light reddish shade of skin which never seemed to lose its tan no matter the season. His hair was short and black which wildly curved into funny directions. His half circle scar under his left eye was as easily seen as ever. Even though Luffy had told him it was years old from his childhood. Apparently he had done something stupid a long time ago. It wasn´t really that surprising knowing Luffy. His straw hat was hung from a red string attached around his neck, holding the hat against the black haired young man´s back.

“It looks like the situation has calmed down?” Sanji asked as he finally gave the cup to Law who accepted it with great appreciation.

“I asked him to teach me some letters in sign language. I got him actually to sit still,” Law commented, shrugging.

“See? It´s not a hard language,” Sanji pointed out.

“The asl here might differ a little from other countries versions. But the difference is so minor it´s easy to learn others variations as well,” he continued and patted Luffy´s back to get the younger man´s attention. He would appreciate it if he was released from the long embrace of death. Fortunately Luffy let go without bigger resistance and was content with sitting lightly on one of the armrests on Sanji´s wheelchair.

“I guess…” Law mumbled and took a sip of his coffee.

“So, letters,” Sanji started which to Law hummed, not really paying much attention to the question but to the black caffeine substance on his brown cup.

“What letters? Can you spell your name?”

“Since when have you been this enthusiastic towards asl?” Law asked. He was getting visibly irritated.

“I´m just trying to further your communication skills. Can you spell your name?” Sanji said back. He was opening his backpack while talking to Law so he could get his loyal blanket back and in place.

“The first thing he showed me to be honest,” Law said pointing at Luffy with his coffee cup. Luffy was still sitting on the armrest as his own fidgeting usual self, making the wheelchair shake slightly. Sanji tried his best to ignore it. Luffy had been going back and forth looking from Sanji to Law and back like a tennis match. Or rather he was looking at their mouths, figuring out what the siblings were talking about. Luffy seemed to perk up after Law confirmed that he knew some letters now thanks to his quick teaching. He poked Sanji right between the poor baker´s ribs, making the blond yelp and turn to the straw hatted man accusingly. Luffy then started to sign with a fast space in his excitement. It was usually pretty hard to keep up with the quick fingers.

Luffy had to repeat his sentence to Sanji for the blonde´s request, it didn´t faze Luffy one bit as he just as enthusiastically repeated what he had signed.  After getting the message across, Sanji raised his eyebrows. Sanji then rose his hand to his own mouth, his fingers pressing the jagged lips. He then moved his hand slightly forward. The sign of “Thank you”. Luffy just nodded to this with a huge grin.

“Luffy said you can spell my name too”, Sanji explained to Law, feeling he was starting to get exited himself.

“Yours, Luffy´s and mine. Some other´s too…” Law answered.

“Sign one of them?”

“Look, I don´t see the need for this,” Law protested.

“It´s making me feel like a toddler, stop it,” he continued with a sour expression.

“Fine, sorry,” Sanji replied defensively.

“For the record, I wasn´t trying to make you feel like a one year old. There aren´t many things I´m better at than you are,” he reasoned.

Law then sighed harshly, putting his coffee cup back to Sanji´s hands and stiffly signed a five letter name. The spelling had some pauses and hesitation but Sanji did recognize it as his own name. The baker grinned like there was no tomorrow.

“You got it, nice work there.”

“Alright, princess. Time to come down from your high throne,” Law said, shaking his head. He did wear a small smile though.

“No go there, Dr. Heart stealer,” Sanji challenged back childishly, to which Law gave him the most murdering scowl the man could muster. No one was never going to forget that one Christmas eve a few years back. It was noted to be very embarrassing to certain young doctor. Sanji did give Law´s coffee back as an apology though. At least the whole ordeal was entertaining to watch for Luffy. Judging from the extraordinary laugh of breaths and hoarse sounds he made.

“Shouldn´t you start going? Your work is starting in an hour or so,” Law asked as he walked closer to his simple but cluttered work table. At least everything seemed quite organized on the surface.

“Uh, about that,” Sanji said slowly, which made the young doctor pause on his way to sitting down on the comfy office chair.

“Are you saying you can´t take Luffy with you? I can´t keep him here. Unfortunately, my intern has other tasks to do than to entertain Luffy when he gets here.” Law said, clearly concerned.

“What? No, just that I´m going to be late,” Sanji quickly explained. This seemed to soothe Law some.

“I´m probably going to get a dent in the head from the old man for this,” the baker groaned.

“If it helps, there is a high possibility Luffy will get one too,” Law assured.

“Hell, I´m pretty sure even I´m going to get one from the prosthetic leg,” he added.

“Not really changing the facts that I´m doomed,” Sanji said, distressed.

“Shouldn´t you still have time to catch the bus?”

“The thing is that I have to help some poor lost soul to get out of this building. Apparently his inner compass is so bad it should be awarded,” Sanji replied to his brother. Law, however, seemed to just stare at him with an unreadable expression.

“Couldn´t you have told this person to ask for directions from the staff or info?” Law asked, clearly confused. It was Sanji´s turn to stare.

“I could have done that?” To Sanji´s question he got a nod and a look that screamed the statement ‘obviously’ from Law.

“I could have done that,” Sanji repeated to himself, burying his face to his hands. His blond bangs fell in front of his embarrassed face like a curtain.

“Just kill me now, I´m such an idiot,” he sighed from beneath his palms. He could feel a hand slamming a few times to his back, even painfully so. It couldn´t have been anyone else than Luffy trying to be sympathetic towards Sanji. Which would have been very suspicious considering the force of the so called ‘pats’ directed at his back. Put this was Luffy´s way of showing he cared.

“You didn´t think this through did you?” Came Law´s knowing voice from the other side of the room.

“I guess not…” The baker agreed. He wasn´t planning on raising his head from his hands anytime soon.

“How did you even get into this kind of situation?”

“I kind of accidentally slammed a door right in to his face. And then I just was stuck with this person, I guess,” Sanji answered. Really not wanting to go on a fully detailed explanation. That would involve him telling about falling from his chair face first on the dirty hospital flooring. He didn´t want to give himself anymore reasons to be embarrassed in front of Law.

“Knowing you, you didn´t even ask this particular person´s name, whom you got involved with. And now you call him by some absurd, half-insulting and definitely ridiculous name”, Law guessed.

“…Maybe,” Sanji mumbled and after silence had settled in, he finally raised his head to see Law looking at him with amused yet tired eyes.

“I´ve know you way too long,” the doctor said.

“I thought that was a good thing?”

“It is,” Law replied to Sanji´s question with a small smile.

Sanji felt a tug at his rolled sleeve that took Sanji´s attention to the black haired man, who had apparently put his straw hat back on top of his head. He then asked the baker, who this person they were talking about was.

To this the blond signed two signs, ’A carrot man’.  And at that moment, like many moments before, Sanji knew he was entirely screwed and so was this stranger they were going to help. Luffy got that curious big smile and the excitement radiating from him, his eyes wide and awake. Luffy was going to try his hardest to make this person his friend. And no doubt, Sanji was going to be stuck with this rude, green haired man for a long time. Maybe even for an eternity, judging how Luffy was already trying to push Sanji´s wheelchair out of Law´s office with the doctor giving his farewells after them.


End file.
